We are now living in such tenuous, difficult polarized times that a film like Mulk feels like a blessing.
It is about everything, really: the nation, religious divide, communal harmony (or, should I say, disharmony, which is spreading). It is about us, the citizens of India,
and how we are grievously riven apart. It shows us a mirror, and that mirror is cracked, from side to side.

In Varanasi, there lives a Muslim family which has long enjoyed amicable relations with its neighbours: for
decades, the members of the family have done ‘uthna, baithna’ with the Mishras and the Chaubeys. Murad Ali Mohammad (Rishi Kapoor) ferries ‘desi dawai’ and goodwill to his
compatriots, and good-natured gossip and ‘chai’ follows. Everyone in the ‘mohalla’ is part of a celebration that is taking place in the Muslim household when the film opens.

Watch or Download Fanney Khan Movie in high quality.

Not everyone, actually. Soon, the fissures start coming out in the open: Murad Ali’s nephew Shahid (Babbar) is under
the influence of an Islamic hard-liner, and has gone astray. Neither Murad’s wife (Gupta), nor Shahid’s father (Pahwa) and mother (Shah), nor his sister-in-law Arti (Pannu)
have noticed his increasing alienation. This leads to an avoidable tragedy, and Murad and his family fetch up in court, with everything at stake: ties with the neighbourhood,
community and ‘mulk’.

The questions Mulk (please note, it could have been called ‘Des’ or ‘Desh’: the choice of title appears deliberate and apt) raises are not new. Ever since the 1947 Partition,
the line that divided the subcontinent and split it into two on the basis of religion, has been a festering wound. In the last few years, it has become deeper and bloodier.

Sinha minces no words, and puts them all out front, loud and clear. Through the film, in prolonged court-room
scenes which sometimes get a little dreary, several thorny issues which have been simmering under the surface, come up: the ‘too many children’ in Muslim households, the
‘lack of literacy’ which shackles the community, the bursting of crackers when Pakistan wins a cricket match, and so on.